The best classic horror movies to watch at Halloween

There is very little more frightening in cinema than the sight of Robert Mitchum's smoothly deranged serial killer, hoving into view, love and hate fighting their battle for superiority in the tattoos across his fingers. Charles Laughton's only film as director was savaged on its release; now it is an acknowledged masterpiece, its stark cinematography and truly creepy themes utterly compelling. The scene where the children float away from Mitchum down the river is justly famed; his howl of rage as they escape almost as terrifying as the hymns he sings as he relentlessly tracks them down.